ONCE affectionately known as pet shop paradise and a place where you could buy anything from a goldfish to a monkey, Manchester's Tib Street is being redeveloped and the last remaining store from the famous era has been forced to close.

When Walter Smith's pet shop started trading on Tib Street, more than three decades ago, it was a busy shopping area buzzing with activity. In the street's numerous pet shops, visitors could buy at cockatoos, rabbits, guinea pigs and aquariums full of exotic fish.

But now, the once extraordinary street is at the centre of a regeneration project and luxury apartments are set to replace many of the historic buildings.

Kenneth Brown bought Walter Smith's in 1972 after seeing an advertisement in a national newspaper. His sons, Chris and Ian, worked alongside him and they ran the shop for the last 20 years travelling from Halifax every day.

Chris Brown said: "Dad purchased the shop because he was interested in pets all his life, he was a pet fanatic. He got the shop up and running and we just carried it on.

"I can honestly say we really enjoyed it on Tib Street but when we finished the area had really died a death. Everything changed when town was moved and the Arndale was built."

"It used to be an excellent street because it was well known for selling all kinds of animals, in fact, you could buy any kind of pet - whether it had two legs or four." Mr Brown described the closure of Walter Smith's as a sad day, even though the shop was only doing about half the business that it did in its heyday.

He said: "It was a wrench to close the shop and move on, but it wasn't that big a wrench because things were different from when we were younger. Then we had a lot of friends in the area as there were a lot of different pet shops, we all worked together and we all became good friends.

"Looking back, we met all kinds of good and interesting people and I'm grateful to all the customers who supported us."

Tib Street has its origins in the 1780s and was previously the central trading district of Victorian Manchester as well as the city's main shopping district in the post-war years.